Frequently Asked Questions

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Use cases
Who is techmatchup for?

Yes — techmatchup covers three workflows that are directly relevant to founders:

  • Map your market — use Market Explorer to get a curated landscape of companies in your sector. Useful for competitive analysis, positioning, and understanding who else is operating in your space.
  • Find comparable companies — use Peer Finder to identify European startups that closely resemble yours. Useful for building comparables lists for investor decks or benchmarking.
  • Shortlist investors — use Investor Match to find VCs aligned with your sector, stage, and geography. Get a ranked list of best-fit funds without weeks of manual research.
  • Track your outreach — save the VCs and comparable companies you find to your Watch List, with free-form tags and private notes to keep tabs on who you've contacted and what's next.
💡 Tip: If you're preparing a fundraising round, start with Investor Match — then use Peer Finder to build a comparable company list that strengthens your deck.

techmatchup is built around the kind of discovery work that takes up a significant share of deal teams' time:

  • Deal sourcing — describe a sector or thesis with Market Explorer to surface relevant European startups fast
  • Peer sets & benchmarking — use Peer Finder to quickly build comparable company lists for due diligence or portfolio analysis
  • Sector mapping — get a structured view of a market landscape before entering or evaluating a space
  • Living deal lists — save targets and comparables to your Watch List as you source them, and use free-form tags and private notes to track deal status or diligence progress
💡 Tip: Market Explorer works best with specific, descriptive inputs — treat it like a brief rather than a keyword search.

Absolutely. Business developers and corporate teams use techmatchup primarily for two things:

  • Prospect & partner discovery — describe the type of company you're looking for in Market Explorer and get a curated list instantly. Useful for identifying potential partners, suppliers, or acquisition targets.
  • Competitive intelligence — use Peer Finder to monitor who else is operating in a given space, or to benchmark a company you're evaluating.
  • Pipeline tracking — save prospects and partners to your Watch List, with free-form tags and private notes to keep track of outreach status across your team's targets.

If your team needs multiple accounts or a custom setup, contact us — we offer tailored solutions for corporate use.

Yes — Market Explorer is particularly well-suited for research and analysis work:

  • Sector mapping — generate a structured overview of European companies in any technology or market domain
  • Identifying emerging players — surface lesser-known startups that might not appear in traditional databases
  • Building comparables — use Peer Finder to find credible comparables for reports, studies, or benchmarking exercises
  • Organizing findings — save companies to your Watch List with free-form tags and private notes, so you can group and annotate your research across projects

Results can be exported to Excel (paid plans) for further analysis.

Subscriptions
FAQs relating to our free & paying plans

With our free account option, users can utilize the techmatchup search engine without incurring any expenses. No banking information is necessary. Explore certain techmatchup's features at your leisure, with no time limitations.

As a free user, you're entitled to 250 credits per month (1 credit = 1 result returned by a search), enabling you to take advantage of techmatchup's resources without any financial commitment.

To create your free account, simply click here to sign up.

Paid plans unlock the full power of techmatchup's discovery tools, well beyond what's available on the free Bee plan.

What you get with a paid plan:

  • Up to 200 results per search, instead of 30
  • Excel export of your results
  • Enhanced filtering options

My Watch List — saving and tagging companies with private notes — is available on every account, free or paid.

Three ways to unlock these benefits:

  • 🦊 Fox — monthly subscription, €20 / month
  • 🦉 Owl — annual subscription, €200 / year
  • 🐨 Koala — pay-per-use, €15 one-time for 1,500 credits (valid 3 months), no recurring commitment

🦊 Fox and 🦉 Owl give you the exact same access to techmatchup's discovery tools — the only difference between them is the billing cycle.

What's included:

  • Full access to all 3 discovery tools: Market Explorer, Peer Finder, Investor Match
  • Up to 200 results per search
  • Enhanced filtering options
  • Excel export of your results
  • Unlimited searches

Fox vs Owl — only the billing cycle changes:

  • 🦊 Fox — €20 / month, billed monthly
  • 🦉 Owl — €200 / year, billed annually (roughly 17% cheaper than paying monthly)
💡 Pro tip: Both plans auto-renew and can be cancelled anytime from My Account — cancelling takes effect at the end of the current billing period.

Koala 🐨 is a pay-as-you-go alternative to the Fox/Owl subscriptions, for users who'd rather not commit to a recurring plan.

What you get:

  • A one-time €15 payment for 1,500 credits
  • Credits valid for 3 months
  • Same benefits as paid subscriptions: up to 200 results per search, enhanced filtering, Excel export

How credits work:

  • 1 result returned by a search = 1 credit — across Market Explorer, Peer Finder, and Investor Match alike
  • Unused credits expire after 3 months and are not refunded
  • You can buy several packs at once, or top up again later if you run out
💡 Good to know: Koala isn't cumulable with an active Fox/Owl subscription — if you already subscribe, you'll need to cancel it before purchasing a Koala pack. You can buy a pack anytime from the pricing section.

To unlock the full potential of our startups search engine, consider upgrading your techmatchup account today!

Choose the option that fits you best:

  • 🦊 Fox — monthly subscription, €20 / month
  • 🦉 Owl — annual subscription, €200 / year
  • 🐨 Koala — pay-per-use, €15 one-time for 1,500 credits (valid 3 months)

How it works:

  1. Log in and navigate to the pricing section
  2. Select your preferred option and click 'Subscribe' (or 'Buy Pack' for Koala)
  3. You'll be redirected to Mollie for secure payment processing
💡 Pro tip: You can manage your account details and request invoices anytime from My Account in the header above.

Kindly be aware that our paid subscriptions operate on an auto-renewal basis, ensuring uninterrupted service at the end of each payment term.

However, if you decide to cancel, you can easily do so through the My Account page.

Cancelling will take effect at the conclusion of the current billing period, with no refunds issued for the ongoing cycle. This means you'll retain access to all subscription benefits until the current billing term expires, regardless of the cancellation timing.

No, sharing your account is against our policy. Our paid subscription plans are designed for personal use and are competitively priced (€20 EUR per month or €200 EUR if annual plan). Each individual is allowed only one personal account.

Sharing account credentials, whether within or outside your organization, is not permitted. Should your company require multiple accounts with a unified billing process, please reach out to us for a customized solution.

If you need to procure multiple techmatchup accounts for your team members, all managed through a single invoice process, please send us an email at info@techmatchup.eu or via this link . Our team will guide you through the process and offer you a tailored solution to accommodate your requirements.

Please click here and enter your email address. If your email is registered as an account, you will receive an email with the steps to follow.
Tools
Tips & questions about our discovery tools

Market Explorer is techmatchup's sector mapping tool. Describe a market or technology domain in plain language, and it instantly generates a curated list of relevant European startups and tech companies matching your focus.

When to use it:

  • Mapping a sector or technology space you want to explore
  • Building prospect lists for business development or partnerships
  • Researching a market before an investment or competitive analysis

How it works:

  1. Log in and navigate to Tools → Market Explorer
  2. Describe the activity, product, or technology you're looking for — be specific and descriptive rather than relying on single keywords. For example, "B2B SaaS platforms for supply chain traceability in the food industry" will outperform "supply chain"
  3. Optionally add filters (location, team size, etc.) and set your result limit — up to 30 results for free accounts, up to 200 for paid plans
  4. Click Search — results appear within seconds, ranked by semantic relevance
💡 Pro tip: If you're targeting a niche sector or specific geography, focus on the top results — they'll be your closest matches. Try rephrasing your description to fine-tune what you get back.

Peer Finder is techmatchup's comparable company tool. Enter a company name or website URL, and it instantly generates a curated list of European startups and tech companies that closely resemble it — based on semantic similarity, not just industry tags.

When to use it:

  • Identifying competitors and benchmarking your positioning
  • Building comparable company lists for investor presentations or due diligence
  • Spotting players in a space you're analyzing or targeting

How it works:

  1. Log in and navigate to Tools → Peer Finder
  2. Enter the exact company name or its website URL (e.g. example.com) — either works
  3. Optionally apply filters to narrow results by country or company criteria
  4. Click Search — if several companies match, select the right one from the list
  5. Peer Finder returns a ranked list of comparable companies based on semantic similarity. Refine further using filters for country, year founded, team size, and status

Results go up to 30 companies for free accounts and up to 200 for paid plans.

💡 Pro tip: If no match is found, try the company name and the website URL separately. You can also switch to Market Explorer and describe the company's activity instead — it'll get you to a similar result from a different angle.

Investor Match is techmatchup's VC discovery tool. Fill in a few details about your company and your fundraising round, and it instantly generates a ranked list of European venture capital firms most likely to be a strong fit — based on what VCs say and what they actually do.

When to use it:

  • Preparing a fundraising round and building your target investor list
  • Identifying VCs aligned with your sector, stage, and geography
  • Saving weeks of manual research on the European VC landscape

How it works:

  1. Log in and navigate to Tools → Investor Match
  2. Fill out the form with a few key details about your company and the round you're planning
  3. Click Find Investors — after a short processing time, you'll receive a curated list of best-fit VC firms
  4. Results are ranked using our proprietary Matching Score: the higher the score, the stronger the fit between your profile and a VC's investment strategy

What goes into the Matching Score?

Unlike generic filters, our multi-signal algorithm — trained on European fundraising data (2025 & 2026) — blends four key signals:

  • 🚀 Investment momentum — how actively the fund is deploying capital right now
  • 📍 Local relevance — whether the VC invests in your country
  • 🧩 Stage fit — how consistently they back companies at your stage
  • 🎯 Thesis alignment — how closely your business maps to their focus areas
💡 Pro tip: The more specific your company description, the more accurate the matching. Treat it like a one-liner pitch — clear, focused, and activity-driven.

Every company in our database is tagged using the same three-axis taxonomy that powers the sector filters in Market Explorer, Peer Finder, and Investor Match.

The three axes:

  • 🧭 Vertical Sectors — the industry or market the company builds for (e.g. FinTech, HealthTech, AgriTech)
  • ⚙️ Horizontal Technologies — the core technology the product is built on, regardless of industry (e.g. Using AI, Cybersecurity, Robotics & Autonomous Systems)
  • 🏷️ Cross-Cutting Tags — a broader theme layered on top, not mutually exclusive with the other two (e.g. ClimateTech, SaaS, Marketplace)

A single company can carry a mix of all three — for example, a solar-monitoring startup using AI could be tagged Energy & CleanTech (vertical), Using AI (horizontal), and ClimateTech (cross-cutting).

Where to see the full list:

We track 51 verticals and topics across the three axes. See the full breakdown, with a description of each category, in our Decoding the Startup Ecosystem guide.

💡 Pro tip: When filtering in Market Explorer or Peer Finder, combining a Vertical Sector with a Horizontal Technology (e.g. FinTech + Using AI) narrows your results much more precisely than either filter alone.

Relevance is the core of what techmatchup does — and it's where we differ most from traditional keyword-based search.

Semantic understanding, not keyword matching

Most search tools match results based on exact words. If you search "fintech," you get companies that mention "fintech." techmatchup works differently: our AI reads the meaning behind your input, not just the words. This means a description like "B2B software helping insurance companies automate claims processing" will surface more relevant results than a single keyword like "insurtech" — because the engine understands context, activity, and business model, not just terminology.

How ranking works across the three tools

Each tool uses a tailored approach:

  • 🧭 Market Explorer ranks companies by semantic proximity to your description — the closer a company's activity matches what you described, the higher it appears
  • 🔎 Peer Finder ranks comparables based on semantic similarity to the reference company's business model and activity
  • 🧩 Investor Match uses our proprietary Matching Score, a multi-signal algorithm that weighs sector fit, stage consistency, geographic relevance, and current investment momentum

What affects result quality?

The quality of your input directly shapes the quality of your output. A specific, descriptive input consistently outperforms a vague or overly broad one.

  • ✅ "SaaS platform helping European retailers manage omnichannel inventory in real time" → strong, focused results
  • ❌ "retail software" → broader, less targeted results
💡 Pro tip: If your first results feel too broad, try rephrasing your description with more operational detail — what the company does, for whom, and how. Experimenting with different angles is often the fastest way to sharpen your shortlist.

Every results screen — Market Explorer, Peer Finder, and Investor Match — lets you switch between two display formats using the Cards / Table buttons above your results.

  • 🗂️ Card view — one detailed card per result, showing the full description, keywords, backers/investors, and links. Best when you want to read into each match.
  • 📋 Table view (the default) — a compact, sortable table. Click any column header (Company, Country, Founded, Team, Similarity…) to sort ascending or descending. Best for scanning many results at once or comparing them side by side.

The ♥ watch-list icon and export selection work the same way in both views, so you can switch back and forth without losing anything.

💡 Pro tip: Your browser remembers your last choice, so you won't need to switch views again on your next search.

My Watch List is your personal shortlist inside techmatchup. Save any company or investor you come across in Market Explorer, Peer Finder, Investor Match, or the Investor Directory, and keep track of them in one place — with your own tags, colors, and private notes.

When to use it:

  • Keeping a running shortlist of promising companies or investors as you research
  • Organizing prospects by priority, sector, or status using your own tags
  • Adding private notes you don't want to lose — e.g. "met at conference, follow up in Q3"

How it works:

  1. Click the ♥ heart icon on any company or VC result — in Market Explorer, Peer Finder, Investor Match, or the Investor Directory — to save it to your Watch List
  2. Go to Tools → My Watch List to see everything you've saved. Switch between a card view and a sortable table view, and filter by Companies, VCs, or a specific tag
  3. Use the search bar to quickly find a saved item by name
  4. Add free-form tags to any item and give each tag its own color — the color then shows up everywhere that tag appears, so you can scan your list at a glance
  5. Add a private note to any item — it's visible only to you
  6. Click an item to open its full profile page, where you can also edit its tags and note. For VCs, you'll additionally see their most recent investments (last 12 months), each linking to that company's own profile when we can identify it
  7. Click the bin icon to remove an item — you'll be asked to confirm, since this also deletes its tags and note
💡 Pro tip: Give your tags a color as soon as you create them — click the small dot next to a tag to pick one. With a growing list, color coding makes it much faster to spot what matters at a glance. Your Watch List holds up to 500 items.
Other
About techmatchup & our data

Neither — and that's the point.

Traditional databases give you access to data. You still do the heavy lifting: searching, filtering, cross-referencing, and building your own lists. That takes time, and the output is only as good as the work you put in.

techmatchup is a toolkit of three AI-powered discovery tools — Market Explorer, Peer Finder, and Investor Match. You provide a simple input (a sector description, a company name, or your fundraising profile), and our AI returns a curated, ranked shortlist you can use immediately.

The difference in practice:

  • A database answers "what's in here?"
  • techmatchup answers "what's relevant for me, right now?"

Under the hood, our database covers 100,000+ European startups and tech companies — but that's the engine, not the product. What you interact with are tools designed around specific workflows: market mapping, peer analysis, and investor matching.

💡 In short: think of techmatchup as a smart discovery layer built on top of a curated European dataset — optimized for speed, relevance, and actionable results.

Our underlying database contains more than 100,000 startups and tech firms across Europe, with updates occurring a minimum of twice per month. It's a living database, continually expanding and improving.

Companies are considered for inclusion based on their innovation, determined by the technology they develop, or through a repeatable/scalable business model. Consulting firms and custom service-oriented businesses, however, do not fall specifically within our scope.

Through the use of algorithms, we identify and augment our knowledge of startups and tech enterprises in our database by leveraging a broad spectrum of sources, including startup websites, press releases, news, VC or incubator websites, and more. Our database contains more than 100,000 startups and tech firms across Europe, with updates occurring a minimum of twice per month. It's a living database, continually expanding and improving.

Please note also that the descriptions associated with each company have been created by an AI system. While efforts are made to ensure the information is accurate, it may contain inaccuracies or be incomplete.

Traditional data providers are built around depth of information: funding rounds, key personnel, ownership history, financial metrics. They're powerful research tools if you already know what you're looking for and have the time to dig.

techmatchup is built around a different question: "What's relevant for me, right now?"

Instead of browsing an exhaustive database, you get three focused discovery tools — Market Explorer, Peer Finder, and Investor Match — each designed around a specific workflow. Describe a sector, enter a company name, or fill in your fundraising profile, and our AI returns a curated, ranked shortlist in seconds.

The difference in practice:

  • Traditional providers give you access to data — you build the picture yourself
  • techmatchup gives you actionable shortlists — the work is done for you

It's also worth noting our focus: techmatchup covers 100,000+ European startups and tech companies exclusively. Rather than going broad globally, we go deep on Europe — which means more relevant results for anyone operating in or targeting the European ecosystem.

💡 In short: if you need comprehensive financial and personnel data, traditional providers have you covered. If you need to map a market, find comparable companies, or shortlist investors — fast — techmatchup is built for that.

If you find that your startup or tech company is not listed in our database, or if any activity information requires updating, kindly reach out to us via email to info@techmatchup.eu or through this link.

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